New Year’s Day in Italy? Tips to rent villas in Tuscany

The end of the year is coming and everybody is already thinking about the New Year’s Day celebrations. Someone of you will stay at home, someone will leave for a short holiday and someone other will take a longer vacation abroad to have relax and fun. What about a New Year’s Day holiday in Tuscany? Spending some days there is an opportunity to have relax and fun with your family and visit one of the most beautiful regions in the world in winter. If you don’t like traditional accommodations (hotels, bed and breakfasts, agritourism, etc) you can choose a villa for rent to have relax and comfort at the same time.

Here you are with a list of useful suggestions to rent villas in Tuscany and avoid bad surprises.

1. When you sign a rental contract, define with landlord (the private owner or the real estate agent you are talking to) if there are some extra fees and specify which services will be included in the rental fee (for instance: such as electricity, gas, water consumption, clearing of the property, heating, lighting, etc).
2. Verify that the house you are going to rent is covered by a suitable insurance policy for fire, theft, damages, etc.
3. Before accepting and signing the contract, thoroughly verify the conditions of furniture, equipment and object you find in the villa.
4. Cancel or modify all the points and declarations that are not completely clear or incorrect.
5. Before signing the contract, create a list containing all the objects you find in the house (it is officially called inventory document). In this way, you will avoid any disagreement of misunderstanding when you leave the house.
6. When you sign the rental contract, agency (or the lessor) will request you an advance security deposit (like hotels do as well), ask for the receipt.

Following these instructions is very simple, but they are very useful to understand local procedures. By the other side, if you want to avoid all this, you can turn to a holiday villas rent Italy tour operator and directly book with them. In this way, you will save time, energy and annoyance as well.

Suggestions to visit Tuscany

1. If it is your first time in Tuscany, you should visit the main cities, such as Florence, Arezzo, Siena, Lucca, and Pisa, but if you have already visited these place, you should take off the beaten tracks and discover smaller cities in the countryside. You shouldn’t lose a visit to Bagno Vignoni, Radicofani, Poggibonsi, Radda in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Pienza, San Gimignano and other small towns in the area.
2. Another important suggestion is about food. Italy has long and deep traditions about history of food and there you can find one of the largest food heritages in the world. So, the suggestion is: eat where the Italians! The greatest thing you can do is buying local food and cook by yourself at home to taste the real Italian flavors (or call a local cook who can prepare Italian dishes for you), otherwise choose a local restaurant, but be sure it is not for tourists! Ask a policeman, a traffic officer or a clerk and follow their indications.
3. If you go to Tuscany in winter, be sure to pack appropriate outerwear for this season, such as raincoat and small umbrella. Don’t forget scarf, gloves and appropriate boots. Italy is famous to be a Mediterranean country, with a general mild climate, but winter in Tuscany is quite hard (like in many other regions).

Ilaria Sabrini - teacher and blogger. I was born in the United States, but I've spend in Italy most of my life. I'm a language teacher and a travel blogger.